I'm Not Afraid of You
by PerfectlyImperfectCreation
Summary: Sure, being a different person is easy when you have a group of people supporting you and an abusive past to leave behind. But what happens when you lose everything, is it so easy to maintain that image? When Julchen looses the only thing tying to her to a wonderful, albeit dangerous and maybe not so great morally, lifestyle, can she still be the person that she strives to be?


"Damn, I thought I was a captain of a pirate ship! I'm the only female on this fucking boat and yet I'm the only one _not _being a pussy! It's fucking water! Quit worrying about your fucking hair!" This rude, rather vulgar statement rang across the ship from a voice with a strong German accent. The female tipped her hat up a bit as she pushed herself away from the railing.

As first when they had seemed to stop with no sign of going ashore, she had assumed a legitimate issue, which was why she had come out of the captain's quarters in the first place. But upon further investigation, all she could do was roll her crimson eyes and sigh at them. Honestly, they were the most feared pirates in all of Europe, having robbed and suck hundreds of ships, taken countless lives. But put them in a new and strange environment, say the Caribbean, and they acted as if they didn't know what it was like to walk headfirst into what could be a dangerous territory.

"Ma'am, what are we supposed to do? We-we don't know anything about this region of the world. The water, the currents, the wildlife, we know nothing Captain! Shouldn't we do some sort of surveillance first?" That was one of her braver men that dared to question her disappointment and criticism. Though it was certainly not the answer that she wanted and that reflected on her rather irritated expression, it was better than not answering her at all. Had there been silence, they all would have had hell to pay.

"Where is your sense of adventure, men?!" The woman demanded in response, slamming her fist down onto her open palm. "You all have ventured into trapped cves, dangerous islands off the coast of Africa, but you're afraid of water where you can see straight to the bottom?!" There was a bit of intentional mock in her ringing voice, but she had picked up on the fact that the quickest way to get a man to do something he didn't want to was to attack their masculinity some time ago. "Regardless of the fact you are a bunch of cowards, we aren't going to get any answers just standing around on the ship! So. Who's going to show some balls and be my volunteers?!"

Absolute silence.

There was then a heavy sigh from the albino woman, her head hanging slightly as she rubbed her temples, trying to comprehend how she was the gutsiest person on this ship. It was exhausting to pep-talk an unresponsive crew, and the fact that she was the newest to the lifestyle and was still the most willing was beyond her.

She was so focused on her own frustrations and irritations that she failed to notice the blonde that came up on deck, green eyes that still had a bit of red in them conveying that he _might _have had a bit too much rum last night. The man rubbed his emerald-green eyes a bit as he stepped out into the sun, every other man on the ship managing to stumble out of his way. A long redcoat was draped over his shoulders, and he could only smirk as the female again tried frantically to get the men to share her enthusiasm over the new scenery.

Arthur, the other Captain of the ship, allowed himself to hang back and simply gaze at the woman from a fair distance away. It suddenly occurred to him at times how remarkable she truly was, and he had to take a moment whenever it hit him. His lean but muscular frame leaned against a pillar as he looked at her, arms folding across his chest against his white blouse. There was a look of content on his face, maybe something a bit deeper than that. But regardless, he just allowed himself to stand and think for a few minutes.

To be frank, it was amazing how much she had changed in the past two years. When he had first, um, run into her, she had been a skittish, noblewoman who wanted exactly nothing to do with him. Since then, however, her confident and intimidating side had revealed itself, and she had become quite the bloodthirsty pirate if he did say so. The men feared and respected her they same way they did him, as she showed that despite her pedigree, she was more than capable of bring a man to his knees and snapping his neck before he even realized he had been overpowered. The girl with the bloody eyes could frighten even him, and he supposed that was part of her charm.

"Fine then." Those words finally rang out as the albino woman clapped her hands together, which either meant she had a great idea or she was about to do something incredibly stupid. It had always been somewhat impossible to predict which way she was going to swing at a given moment, so usually the crew crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. Arthur turned his gaze to on of the crew members, his expression nonchalant.

"What did you dumb lot do to piss her off this time?" He asked calmly, though how he sounded was irrelevant. Anyone in his crew knew that the man could be furious and still talk as if it were a normal conversation. The poor deck hand that he addressed swallowed, trying not to reveal how much her feared the other male. Needless to say at this point, Arthur and Julchen were a stellar pair.

"I-I believe she's upset that though we've anchored, everyone refuses to leave the ship sir. Everyone is concerned due to the fact we know nothing about our surroundings." He replied carefully, trying to seem as innocent in this situation as possible, knowing that whoever the blonde decided to take his anger out on was a very unfortunate individual. He could only pray that it wouldn't be him.

Arthur went to respond, but his attention was quickly drawn away from the deckhand and back towards the aft of the ship. He should have known better than to take his eyes off her for even a second. True to her explosive and unpredictable nature, she had caused a minor uproar by stripping out of her long blue coat and white shirt underneath, handing them off to the uncomfortable Matthew. She was in the process of taking off her boots and socks by the time Arthur had noticed, and for a split second all he could do was clench his fist and try not to notice the blood rushing to his face. It was a mixture of his own rather passionate feelings towards the albino and some anger. When wearing only the bandages over her chest and her black trousers, it showed off her slender frame quite a bit, and Arthur couldn't help the bit of possessiveness that told him only he could see her like that. It wasn't their fault, but he was pissed at his men for staring.

"Julchen tell me why you think stripping in front of all the men is going to encourage them to leave the ship?" The female in question turned and looked at him, a bit of surprise crossing her expression. She hadn't even known he was there until he had said something. However, her look of surprise quickly turned into a smirk that screamed trouble as she stepped onto the wooden railing of the ship.

"I gave up trying to talk them into going ashore Arthur!" She responded, her braided silver hair being slipped of her shoulder and against her back instead. "I figure, what better way to show them that they're being a bunch of bitches than to just do it myself?" She had to bite back a laugh as Arthur's eyes widened and he started to attempt to shove his way over to her.

"Julchen have you lost your bloody mi-"

"Bye."

And with that, she shifted her weight so that she would fall forward, and though she couldn't see him from this angle she was certain Arthur had just barely missed grabbing her. Though she normally was rather level-headed (maybe some bursts of anger here and there) but sometimes she enjoyed catching her lover off guard and doing something unexpected. Julchen enjoyed the feeling of falling, the wind rushing past her as she fell, before turning her body so she hit the water in sort of a dive. By the sound of it, landing any other way would have hurt pretty bad.

After hitting the water, she allowed her body to flip with the force, so she ended up sort of laying in the water, halfway between the ocean floor and the surface. Julchen allowed her crimson eyes to open, and though the salt hurt like a bitch, she was amazed at how clear it was. Even with her eyesight being blurred slightly, she could still see all the way to the bottom, and all the sea life around her.

Taking a moment to admire the view, Julchen finally pushed herself back towards the surface, taking in a deep breath as soon as she was able to. Instantly she heard a lot of voices all chattering at once. She wiped the water from her face, having to blink a few times in order to get her vision back completely. Her eyes followed the source of the noise, and the first thing she noticed peering down from the ship were deep green eyes that were lit up in anger.

That only made her start to laugh hysterically. See, one of the reasons that she and Arthur worked so well together. Rage didn't frighten her, at least not coming from him, so she always just ended up laughing at him and asking who he thought he was talking to her like that. It always diffused the situation a lot and it calmed it down. This time, though, she decided that she'd tease him just a little bit, because she could.

"Whatsa matter, Captain? I was just goin for a swim!" She called, starting to laugh, which in turn caused some of the crew to start laughing as well. She watched as the Brit's face grew redder, clearly becoming more flustered as laughter surrounded him, and a challenging smirk crossing her face. _Oh, I embarrassed you? Do something about it. _So, the man did just that, and quickly tossed off his hat and started struggling out of his coat. The albino female quickly realized that she needed to take off, like, thirty seconds ago.

See while she was faster sprinter (and smoother in her moments, which helped when maneuvering though thick brush and trees), Arthur was a much stronger swimmer. If she could make it to shore, she might be able to slip away from him. But that was if she made it that far. She turned and started pulling herself towards the shore, knowing better than to turn around when she heard a loud splash behind her.

It seemed like an eternity to get to shore, basically tripping over herself as she got up and struggled to get her footing as waves crashed around her. Finally, she was able to start running when the water got about knee deep. She struggled out of the water completely, and immediately broke into a sprint, her braid loosened and some hair falling out as she flew across the sand. It was a strange feeling when the sand went from sticking between her toes to nearly scalding her feet, but she couldn't really afford to pay it any mind. Just before she hit the tree line, she finally risked a glance back. The blonde chasing her was just now trying to get his footing in the water, and Julchen couldn't help the smirk that came to her face as she whipped her head back around. Even though it was only about fifteen seconds, it was more than she had expected to have.

However, the albino woman kept her focus on her escape, crashing into the forest and high brush, knowing better than to relax just yet. While she certainly had the upper hand now, victory couldn't be assured just because of a small lead. She kept up her full speed sprint thought the forest, ignoring the branches and rocks that dug into her feet, pushing limbs of trees out of the way so they didn't smack her in the face. She would turn right, then left, then right again, forming a zigzag so it would be harder to follow her. It took about fifteen minutes of running as fast as she could, but then she figured she was probably in the clear, at least for now. So, she waited for a large tree and swung around, the trunk rather wide so that it would easily conceal her body. So, she slid down, sitting almost in a tight ball and covering her mouth to help conceal the sound of her breathing. Shockingly, after sprinting for such a long time, one tended to get a little out of breath.

The albino closed her eyes and sat there a long while, focusing on relaxing her racing heartbeat and her breathing. Once that was accomplished, she simply sat still as a statue when she heard rustling coming from the direction where she had been running. For a moment, she was able to convince herself that it was the same wildlife coming to check out the intruder to it's space. But the more she heard it and the closer, it got, she slowly grew concerned for her concealed position. Unfortunately, but the time she realized she had been spotted, it was too late, and when she stood to run again someone grabbed her by the wrist.

"Gotcha."

"Fuck!" Was the word that decided to leave her mouth as she half-heartedly tried to pull away from him, though was aware there was no point. She looked up to meet the green, delighted eyes with her own crimson ones, having half a mind to spit in his face at that dumb, smug look he had on his face. How dare he fucking catch her. But she admitted her defeat, raising her free hand in the air as a form of surrender. "How'd you track me down? I don't understand."

"Darling, next time, make sure your hair isn't caught and laying out in plain sight." He responded with a smirk, pulling the end of her braid off a branch that was on the side of the tree, clearly visible from the path they had created. Top it off with the fact her hair was fucking silver, and it was ridiculously easy to see in the light. Julchen groaned, obviously more than a little mad at herself as the male moved in front of her and pinned her other wrist to the tree.

"I cannot believe I didn't watch my hair. I have never fucked that up."

"There's a first time for everything."

"Yeah well I'm pissed about it."

"Well, you did fail. Now, what would an appropriate punishment be?" He asked rhetorically, a rather mischievous grin spreading across his face as the word 'punishment' left his mouth, causing Julchen to simply roll her eyes. His mind always jumped to something disturbing and twisted and sexual. Not that she minded, rolling her eyes was simply her go-to reaction. Arthur chuckled at the female captain, looking down at her before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers.

This was one of those moments that she could easily have melted into. Honestly it was a picturesque scene. Both her and her lover wet, enjoying the warm air and the cool breeze, surrounded by nothing but green. The sun was just barely able to peak through some gaps in the canopy, and it created better mood lighting than one could imagine in such a natural environment. As she lost herself in the feeling, her hands gently moved away from the tree, one resting against his cheek and the other lightly grabbing his bicep. In return, his hands moved to hold her by the waist, and though their affection typically presented itself in a much rougher fashion, the Brit seemed content to pull away after a moment and simply smile down at the Prussian woman, her eyes slowly opening as she smiled herself.

This was a time when she could have gotten incredibly sappy, where her words would come tumbling out of her mouth in a rather unattractive fashion before she could stop them. Where she would verbally remind him that she loved him (a word that was not used on the ship or when other people were around), and go into detail about how she pictured their lives together, roaming the seas, raiding the ships of the shamelessly rich and cruel, slaughtering other pirates that dared challenge them. No, it didn't sound like the most romantic of lives, but to a woman who was nearly forced to marry a man that had already gone through five wives that kept mysteriously dying, this was heaven.

She also could have reminded him that she was in debt to him for allowing her to become a better, truer version of herself. Looking at her now, one wouldn't have been able to tell that until two year ago, she was practically a picture-perfect princess. Well, mayor's daughter, but one could get a picture. Elegant, heavy dresses, painful shoes, pinching corsets. Hairstyles that took hours and pulled at every little hair on her head. She could have spent the rest of her life like that. Yes, she could have word-vomited all of that.

'Could have' being the keys words.

Before she could really even open her mouth to say anything, though, a sound off in the distance made both their ears perk up, and there was a moment of silence. But any captain will tell you, there's almost a sixth sense when it came to your ship and your crew. Something you threw your entire life into became a part of you, and you just got a feeling in the pit of your stomach when something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Then, the sound came again.

The distant but distinct sound of cannon fire.


End file.
